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« Benefits of an Obama Administration: Part II | Main | Obama Plans for Closing Gitmo; No Word on Other Secret Prisons »

November 10, 2008

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Isnt it ironic, how the Republicans and their right wing allies once dominated the internet political landscape, and now it is becoming their undoing ?

Moving Obama's campaign email list inside the executive branch is not the best way to use this list. If the purpose of using the list is political, then bringing the list inside the executive branch, where taxpayer funds are paying for its use and maintenance, exposes the use of the list to all kinds of attacks by outsiders. It's always helpful to do a little thought experiment in such situations: how would progressives have felt if Bush had been using White House resources to do blast emails to a list of 10 million conservatives asking them to lobby for some Bush initiative?

Obviously the President can use "the bully pulpit"--press conferences, speeches, etc--to build support for his programs. Who, for example, should pay for the expenses involved in flying the president to a fund-raising event? There is no question that if the president's only appearance on a trip was at a political fundraiser, then the president's campaign would have to pay the cost of the trip--which is why such trips always include events that can, with some tongue in cheek, be called nonpartisan, thereby forcing the government to pick up some, or most, of the cost of what is really a campaign trip.

Obama would be much smarter if he keeps his email list outside the government, where his supporters will not be encumbered with all the oversight, rules, and regulations that would apply to any White House-based operation.

This is not to say that the White House should not build email lists

Moving Obama's campaign email list inside the executive branch is not the best way to use this list. If the purpose of using the list is political, then bringing the list inside the executive branch, where taxpayer funds are paying for its use and maintenance, exposes the use of the list to all kinds of attacks by outsiders. It's always helpful to do a little thought experiment in such situations: how would progressives have felt if Bush had been using White House resources to do blast emails to a list of 10 million conservatives asking them to lobby for some Bush initiative?

Obviously the President can use "the bully pulpit"--press conferences, speeches, etc--to build support for his programs. Who, for example, should pay for the expenses involved in flying the president to a fund-raising event? There is no question that if the president's only appearance on a trip was at a political fundraiser, then the president's campaign would have to pay the cost of the trip--which is why such trips always include events that can, with some tongue in cheek, be called nonpartisan, thereby forcing the government to pick up some, or most, of the cost of what is really a campaign trip.

Obama would be much smarter if he keeps his email list outside the government, where his political organization will not be encumbered with all the oversight, rules, and regulations that would apply to any White House-based operation.

This is not to say that the White House should not build email lists which could include information on issues that people cared about, or that the White House could not send information tailored to those interests to those people. But such emails should be focused on issues, not elections.

There is an ethical line in here, gray though it may be. Obama has positioned himself as someone who does not look to push to the limits of the ethical boundaries of politics. Keeping his overtly political emails out of the White House would preserve this ethical firewall.

So, no one has given me a good answer so far, "ethically", legally or politically. Not to say that there is no good answer.

Let me take these in turn:

So now it's unethical to organize volunteers to help with specific policy initiatives? That's strange. I guess the idea is it's unfair to be effective. How 90s.

Legally, I dunno. Maybe there is a reason a tool created to help with a campaign can't be lent temporarily to a White House communications office. It's not that there is anything inherently partisan about a mailing list. If there is a good federal statute on this, I am still waiting to have it brought to my attention. (Because I am too lazy to look it up myself.)

Politically, would it be a loser? No, actually, the opposite. I think a President with an army of volunteers ready to work on distinct issues could be a real juggernaut. But it takes imagination and daring. Maybe that's what bothers people: "It's never been done before!" Well, now we're doing it. Next?

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